The Dutch are fooling themselves. Women’s rights are also threatened here, by Christians in suits

More than a week ago there was the Week of Life: the propaganda campaign of the ‘pro-life’ organization Schreeuw om Leven. With misleading commercials, websites and billboards and their famous ‘Mars’ they try to deprive women of their right to self-determination.

Christian fundamentalists, including prominent politicians, are trying to work towards the situation in the United States, where their Christian brothers have reduced abortion rights almost to a minimum.

Fake news

Those in power and citizens stand by and watch how fake news is spread, the social anti-abortion noise is getting louder and hundreds of millions are being allocated by the extreme Christian lobby to make this happen. It is striking that the same people subsequently express their horror at the erosion of women’s rights in Iran. There it is also religious who undermine the position of women and other marginalized groups. They only appeal to another holy book.

Gert-Jan Segers, leader of the ChristenUnie, expressed his admiration on Twitter at the end of September for the women who risk their lives in the streets of Iran to fight for their freedom. They fight for their fundamental right to self-determination: to dress as they please; to be able to make free choices about their own bodies.

Basic package interventions

In the meantime, it was his party, together with the SGP, who made it possible in 2004 for Dutch insurers to omit ‘highly controversial’ components from the compulsory basic package, such as abortion and (most) IVF treatments. In addition, his Christian Union colleague Don Ceder spread disinformation about the so-called consequences of abortion in 2020 during the March for Life live stream.

Equally noteworthy is the performance of SGP leader Kees van der Staaij, who in October, together with Segers, submitted a motion calling for further investigation into the death of Iranian feminist activist Jina Mahsa Amini.

This while Van der Staaij is committed here in the Netherlands to pushing back women’s emancipation and to silence feminists. He and his party believe that women should not be allowed to decide for themselves about their bodies. Van der Staaij is a welcome guest at the March for Life and openly prefers the ‘rights’ of an undeveloped piece of tissue over those of the woman.

Hypocrisy

Apart from the hypocrisy of both gentlemen, the Dutch citizen can also be blamed. He loudly distances himself from the injustice in Iran, but does nothing against similar injustice here in the Netherlands. While support for the feminist struggle is important elsewhere, it should not distract from the need for revolt in our own country.

Because the anti-abortion lobby and ‘anti-gender movement’ are actively sponsored by organizations in the US and Russia, among others. Between 2009 and 2018, opponents of the right to self-determination invested more than 700 million dollars in fighting abortion rights, among other things.

Women all over the world are taking to the streets demanding to decide for themselves about their clothes, hairstyle, body and womb, so remembered feminist author Mona Elthawy to me this week in one of her essays.

Assassin

The Dutch are fooling themselves if they think they are safe from patriarchal and religiously based forces such as those in Iran. Here too, our human rights are being tampered with like a silent killer, with campaigns such as the Week for Life being one of the few public signals. No men with beards here, but men in suits.

Let’s learn to recognize them and continue to oppose the curtailment of the right to self-determination here too. A counterpoint is more necessary than ever.